As gamers we sometimes turn to eBay to sell games for a few more bucks than we could get with a trade-in. Their long history of catering mostly to big sellers and retailers on their site — most recently by hiking final sale fees in return for soon dropping a listing fee — has rankled many. But there are other options.

Half.com does things I like that eBay doesn’t, things like collecting payment from the buyer and giving it to you twice a month via direct checking account deposit and things like the standardized listing of items, but if you want to stick it to eBay, using Half isn’t the way to do it since eBay owns them.

GameGavel is another option, and they’ve announced that they’ve immediately dropped listing fees. It’s definitely a gaming-focused auction site, and Stephen pointed me to them when I asked if there were any credible alternatives, since he has done a lot of auction work recently while assembling and pruning his Castlevania collection. I signed up, but haven’t listed anything just yet.

The email trumpeting their decision to drop listing fees as well as highlighting what they think makes them a better place to sell than eBay is after the jump.

Hello GameGavel Community,

GameGavel = Starting Today, No More Listing/Insertion Fees

As many of you know starting January 1st we adjusted our fees to include small listing fees. Since then Ebay has recently announced they will be removing listing/insertions fees starting on April 1st, 2010. However, with this removal of listing fees they are also increasing the final value fees (FVF)/selling fees significantly so don’t be fooled. Here is a nicely written article about this that I suggest you all understand:

http://www.examiner.com/x-312-Auctions-and-Antiques-Examiner~y2010m1d29-New-eBay-fees–the-devils-in-the-details–almost-a-200-increase-in-FVF-for-25500-range

As a result of Ebay’s no listing/insertion fees change (and they are only doing this for items with starting bids under $1) GameGavel.com is dropping the listing/insertion fees for good. This means there is not cost to you as a Seller for listing an item, at any price. The only fees include listing enhancements like homepage-featured items, top-of- category listings, bold titles or highlighted listings, and of course final value fees. Also, unlike Ebay, we will not be increasing our final value fees/selling fees to make up for what seems to be like a fee reduction. This is a 100% fee reduction and not being buried in other fee increases.

Keep in mind that for sellers, GameGavel, also features free branded GameGavel storefront/homepage features that Ebay is charging $15+ per month.

GameGavel is growing daily now approaching 20,000 unique monthly visitors. Our goal of hitting 4,000 registered members by our second anniversary is well within reach and we are seeing more buying and selling than ever before.

It is my hope by reverting back to a no listing fee structure that many more of you will experiment by listing some items on GameGavel. We are getting lots of new people buying all types of things, from common items to “harder to find” items; systems and games.

Thanks again for being apart of our growth and as always let us know if you have any questions about using GameGavel.com.

So Cal Mike, Founder

http://www.GameGavel.com